Um, I don't see what the big deal is here. I live about 10 miles from a nuclear power plant, and we hear the siren go off as a test the frost Monday of every month. They all do this.

What's that?

It's the sound of thousands of pants filling with doom. DOOM!

/Dr. Doom? In my pants?

I'm still worried about the boy who cried wolf.

/not really

Every Wednesday at noon, in every town in France, for the last 60 years, they have tested the bomb sirens. Anyone wanting to attack France: attack on a Wednesday, at 12pm!

I was raised in a town that had a nuclear reactor in it.
In the 50s/
And it's gone now.
We didn't think anything of it.
Except for the Big Sign welcoming us to Saxton, Pennsylvania.
/we did have a local ledgend of a 40 foot black snake up in them hills.
//not remotely related to the nike thing, tho.

Um, yeah, that would be the first Monday of every month.
/I gotta learn to preview...

misanthropista: Um, I don't see what the big deal is here. I live about 10 miles from a nuclear power plant, and we hear the siren go off as a test the frost Monday of every month.

Yeah, but they really shouldn't be building them where it's that cold the whole year round.

Big F-ing Deal. I used to live near Three Mile Island, I got used to hearing them test the sirens.

That's nice. The longer people resist alternative energy sources, the more ugly the trainwreck will be.

I got mine, so why should I care?

Oh- and something you Farkers might find interesting-- my fourth grade field trip was to said power plant.

/No, I don't live in the middle of nowhere...

I live in Crystal River, FL. There's a nuke here. They test the sirens every Friday at noon ... Pretty eeeeeerie sound if you ask me...

So if the core melts down and it happens to be the first Monday of the month...?


Doesn't it seem a bit warm out today?

Seriously, nobody realized that this "test" feature makes a hole in 3.3% of the system that you can't do anything about?

I, too, live near one and the sirens are tested every month. It's no big deal. I think it's on Mondays as well.

/no news here, move along...

"Yeah, that's it, just a test"

Subby makes no sense. Which detracts 2 points from the humor factor.

Because unless they're activating a 48-hour self-destruct program to keep the Klingons from taking over the Nuclear plant, I can't see how someone could say that a planned siren was a sign of something going wrong.

/Khaaaaaan?
//Nuclear Wessels!

I live just over the intercostal from that nuke plant and hardly ever hear those sirens when I'm in my house or at work. They are a waste of time.

How did this get a greenlight?

Testing testing is this thing on?

They test them on a regular basis. I've lived here all of my life, and I hear them three to four times a year. No big deal.

The only timed I've ever been nervous about the St. Lucie nuclear plant was in 2002. After 9/11 the plant was on high alert of course, but we never gave it much thought. We were fishing 10 miles offshore when three F-16's buzzed us and turned due west towards the plant. Our first thought was, oh shiat, they're trying to stop an attack on the plant. The VHF radio went crazy with people trying to figure out what was going on. It turned out they were heading home after the McDonald's Air & Sea show in Ft. Lauderdale, 100 miles south of us.

Once I saw that map of where the devastation would be if something went wrong. I thought to myself "well I guess the fact that my ears will melt off makes the sirens even more ineffective."

also, the "instructions" are worse than the Taco Bell speaker in the drive through

Wow, slow news day, huh. Limerick Generating Station in PA does this on the first Monday of every month at 2pm.

Although, I've always wondered. What if a major problem happened on the first Monday of the month at 2pm.. Do they not blow the sirens?

/kidding

Nuclear power plant warning sirens are tested daily... just not audibly. Audible tests are less frequent, and full-volume tests are even less frequent, but pre-announced (at least here in NC).

//I want my sirens tested every day... think about it.

misanthropista: They all do this.

I've been living in Phoenixville, PA for over a year now. We've got Limerick/Frick's Lock right next to us. I've never heard the sirens being tested.

/wouldn't know what they sounded like if they were testing them in the first place
//thought the brochure thingy they mailed out earlier in the
Spring was really cool

Oh..wait.. I scrolled up and I saw 920's post. So, like, that noise that I always thought was the volunteer fire fighter's alarm was the nuclear alarm? Was wondering why I heard it so infrequently...

/never mind then

InvisibleFrank: I live just over the intercostal from that nuke plant and hardly ever hear those sirens when I'm in my house or at work. They are a waste of time.

Hey, a farker who lives near me. Nice to meet you.

Think of the evacuation problem the real thing would create. At least hurricanes give us a few days warning!

I'm here to add to the "I live 5 miles from a nuke plant and this happens all the time" crowd. My question is... how will I know that it's a REAL siren, and NOT a test? As if there were something I could do anyway.

/duck
//and
///cover

AhGodUSmellThat:

What are the odds!

a_photoshop_voter

If you're within the EPZ (where the sirens are located) it should be made abundantly clear to you (via newspaper, tv, calendars mailed to you, etc.) when said tests are planned.

If a real need to activate the sirens ever came to pass, they would be immediately accompanied by detailed instructions on every forseeable mode of mass communication (tv and radio).

/does this for a living
//not duck and cover
///time distance and shielding

a_photoshop_voter: how will I know that it's a REAL siren, and NOT a test?

It won't come at the same time it does every week...unless the meltdown happens then. In which case, you're farked.

InvisibleFrank: What are the odds!

In this area? I'd say the odds are like getting four out of six numbers in the lotto. Pretty rare.

I suspect that if it's not a test, they'll leave it on for a long time, not just for the minute it takes to test.

As a contracted employee in the nuclear power business, I'd like to remark that blathering uninformed opinions just makes you look stupid.

That is all.

moops

A single wayward crow?

Freaking Simpsons has used up too much of my grey matter. Now I can't remember that stick.. thingy.. you use to.. dig.. food.

a_photoshop_voter
I also live a few miles away from a nuclear plant (Sharon Harris). I would rather live here than anywhere near a coal fired plant. I think everyone within 10 mile gets mailings periodically that exactly detail the "growl" and full volume test schedule. I always read the mail about the power plant.

in Hawaii, they test the tsunami (air raid) sirens on the first of every month.

I worked in the Ala Moana Tower, on the 12th floor, right next to where all the Japanese tourists were dropped off to go shopping. At 12 noon on every 1st of the month, we would all gather against the window to watch all the tourists scatter like ants when that siren went off - AIR LAID! LEVELYBODY SCATTER-A! oh man that was some funny shiat

Sir_Blingsalot:

are you the guy talking over the louspeaker? 'Causa, like I said before, I can't understand a farking word you say!

OK reactor two, we're going to send you the startup command sequence...



Did you get it? Hello?

Wow. Add me in the mix of those that live in/near Limerick PA. Fark party anyone?

drdamned: Add me in the mix of those that live in/near Limerick PA. Fark party anyone?

Hey, I'm game if anyone else is. Then ya'll could meet me and Railbird.

/and if this cat doesn't move off the bed anytime soon, I'm going to punt him clear across the room.
//nothing like not being able to stretch out your legs...

Damn, manatees stopping the cooling intake pipes again...

Back in October our local glow-in-the-dark's sirens failed two days in a row.

// Lives 25 miles away.
/// The mushroom cloud will form on the south-west horizon.
//// Did you know slashies have a half-life of 1.2 Million Years?

Damn, manatees stopping the cooling intake pipes again..

Willy Wonka?

birdistasty;

Great. Let's get something started then. Maybe something in 3 weeks or so? I'm damn busy right now.

Everyone in that area email me to discuss more.... Like place, date, time, etc.... I'm off to do stuff.